6 HENRY DEANE. 
the cheapest with the limitation that it must thoroughly 
serve the purpose, and if durability is wanted and is obtain- 
able with what is absolutely the cheapest, then it is in 
accordance with this limitation. I might point out that 
economy does not always exclude attention to questions of 
comfort or even luxury. These may be the conditions of 
the problem set and with these in view as necessities of 
the case, economy may still be studied. One of the con- 
ditions of a problem in the design of arailway may be that 
high speed is a sine qua non. This does not exclude the 
consideration of economy, as it is quite certain that there is 
_ scope for extravagance if the work is carried out regardless 
of cost and outside the necessities of the case. If low 
speed only is required, a condition of things obtaining at 
the present time on many longer and shorter branches of 
our railway system, it would be foolish to spend money in 
excessive strength, curves of large radius and easy gradi- 
ents, when the end would be met by cheaper construction, 
Of course the same conditions are not always present, 
and what would be proper expenditure in one case would 
be extravagance in another, and on the other hand what 
would be parsimony in one case would be reasonable 
economy in another. 
The question of what money there is available often 
affects the design, and expenditure may be thus limited by 
want of adequate funds. When this is the case it cannot be 
helped. One must put up with it. One must cut one’s 
coat according to one’s cloth. Engineers cannot always 
exercise what they would think to be true economy because 
they cannot always get enough money. This is not infre- 
quently the case even where State expenditure is concerned, 
and shortness of funds may arise at times not only from the 
reluctance of Parliament to vote the means required, but 
on other occasions on account of the unwillingness of the 
British public to lend the money. An example of the 
